WATCH: Democrats Remove ‘So Help Me God’ from Swearing-In Oath; Conservatives Say Democratic Party Has ‘Turned Its Back on God’

May 15, 2019

Since taking control of the House, Democrat leaders of several key committees have nixed the phrase “so help me God” from a swearing-in oath for individuals testifying before them.

“I think God belongs in religious institutions: in temple, in church, in cathedral, in mosque — but not in Congress,” Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties told The New York Times. What Republicans are doing, he continued, “is using God.”

“And God doesn’t want to be used,” he said.

Rev. Franklin Graham, who serves as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has blasted the move as backward.

“Why has the Democratic Party turned its back on God? @RepCohen of TN said, ‘I think God belongs in religious institutions: in temple, in church, in cathedral, in mosque—but not in Congress,’” Graham said in a series of tweets Tuesday in response to the report.

“We need more of God, not less! What @RepCohen is suggesting is what Communism did in Eastern Europe & is still doing in places around the world like Cuba. Communism only allows worship inside approved churches,” he continued. “God is our Creator & the maker of the universe. He is present everywhere; He is not limited to churches or temples. The root of the issue is that many politicians don’t want God in any part of their politics or our country’s business because His standards condemn their sins.”

Republican lawmakers, The New York Times reported, are also staging a form of protest, by pointing out each time the phrase is omitted in real time.

“I am a sinner, I make mistakes every single day, but I do think that we could use a little more of God, not less,” Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana reportedly told his colleagues seated around the dais of the House Natural Resources Committee.